Posts Tagged ‘piracy’

What do you do when your business model violates laws in your home country, and the laws of most every country around?

Start a new country, of course.

The Pirates Bay, one of the top bit torrent sites where you can find links to download music, movies, TV shows, software, and more, is getting a little tired of being hounded by the Swedish government for their perfectly harmless habit of facilitating worldwide copyright infringement and has decided to go it alone by buying Sealand, a former British naval platform in the North Sea that was declared a "micronation" during some legal disputes in the 70's. Sealand is now for sale, and The Pirate Bay is sizing it up and measuring for drapes.

Interested in becoming a citizen of the first "information must be free" nation? Head to their Web site and donate. Keep in mind, however, that where companies can be sued, countries can be bombed. Just sayin'.

Weird Al has a new album coming out September 26th, and he's released a song from it for free download. It's titled, appropriately, "Don't Download This Song."

www.myspace.com/weirdal – The song, and the place it'll be premiered tonight at 6 PM Pacific, 9 PM Eastern.
DontDownloadThisSong.com – Send the song as an e-card
ddts.mp3 – direct download.

Pirates, put down your Neros and your burners! As of this week major movie studios are allowing you to legally download blockbuster movies to your computer for you to keep forever. What a breakthrough!

Of course, they cost at least as much — probably more — than the same movies on DVD, even though you don't get the bonus extras, inserts, or box. And there are only about 300 titles available so far. And each one will take around two hours to download. And they can't be burned to a DVD. Or put on an iPod. And you can't watch them on a television set without buying more electronic gear or running cables from your PC. And you have to use Windows Media Player to watch them. Oh, and you can't even get to the download site on a Mac. Or a Linux system. Or with Firefox. Or Netscape. Or outside of the U.S.

But apart from that, it's the hottest thing ever!

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Tell me, do you feel more virtuous these days? More law-abiding? The recording industry seems to think you are, and they've certainly never been wrong before.

According to a report from the International Federation of Phonographic Industries — those whacky kids — the number of legal music downloads during the first half of 2005 was three times higher than during the same period last year, while the dastardly efforts of illegal file swapping pirates only increased a very little teeny bit. Industry representatives are seizing this as proof that their heavy-handed legal attacks and constant anti-piracy tirades are having some effect besides annoying the bejesus out of their customers.

"We are now seeing real evidence that people are increasingly put off by illegal file-sharing and turning to legal ways of enjoying music online," said John Kennedy, IFPI chairman and lead vocalist. "Whether it's the fear of getting caught breaking the law, or the realization that many networks could damage your home PC, attitudes are changing, and that is good news for the whole music industry."

I almost hate to ruin Mr. Kennedy's dream world. I'm sure it's a happy place, where kittens and butterflies dance along babbling brooks to the bought-and-paid-for rendition of "You Are My Sunshine." And it's true that legal downloads are up a gargantuan 316 percent, 180 million songs sold compared to last year's 57 million. In comparison there was only a measly 3 percent increase in online thievery; only 900 million this year according to the same report. Maybe everyone was busy downloading "Revenge of the Sith."

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Artists Break With Industry on File Sharing A prominent group of musicians and artists, breaking with colleagues and the major entertainment studios, is urging the Supreme Court not to hold online file-sharing services responsible for the acts of users who illegally trade songs, movies and software. The group, which includes representatives of Steve Winwood, rapper Chuck D and the band Heart, said in court papers to be filed today that it condemns the stealing of copyrighted works. But it argues that popular services such as Grokster, Kazaa and others also provide a legal and critical alternative for artists to distribute their material. "Musicians are not universally united in opposition to peer-to-peer file sharing" as the major records companies claim, according to a draft of the group's court filing. "To the contrary, many musicians find peer-to-peer technology . . . allows them easily to reach a worldwide online audience. And to many musicians, the benefits of this . . . strongly outweigh the risks of copyright infringement."

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Funny, aren't these part of the group that the RIAA has said is unified against file-sharing? I'm sure I heard that somewhere…